Rourke Named Associate AD for Student Services

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University Director of Athletics Oliver Luck announced today the hiring of Brady Rourke as the associate athletic director for student services.

Rourke comes to WVU from Syracuse, where he spent the past year as the associate director of student services. He will be responsible for administering the student services division and overseeing the academic staff. He will work with student-athletes to establish academic goals and then organize and implement programs to assist the student-athletes in meeting those goals.

He will serve as the liaison to the University’s academic community, provost’s office, admissions’ office, registrar’s office and disability services. He will assist the student-athletes in identifying educational and career interests, selecting classes and determining academic majors.

Rourke will also provide guidance to the student-athletes in meeting their educational goals through monitoring and mentoring during study hall, tutoring and assisting with test preparation, study skills and time management.

Rourke joined the Syracuse Athletics Department as an assistant director of student-athlete support services in 2013. He was responsible for providing academic support and monitoring academic progress for Syracuse's football student-athletes, the same role he held at Penn State from 2007-12 and at Arizona State in 2006. He began his career in academics as a graduate assistant for the PSU football academic support program in 2003.

At Penn State, he served as the director of the Athletic Director's Leadership Institute, managing the student-athlete leadership development program available to all 31 varsity sports. He was the faculty advisor for PRIDE, a student sportsmanship team at PSU, working with the students to address fan behavior. Rourke was an instructor for the freshmen seminar at PSU, educating incoming student-athletes about balancing athletics and academics.

In addition to serving as the academic coordinator for football and men' track & field at Arizona State, Rourke was also the career development coordinator. He was an instructor for freshmen enrichment and helped develop course content for the freshmen seminar to assist student-athlete in developing a strong academic foundation.

Rourke is the Chair of the N4A Model Practices Committee for the National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics (N4A). The committee is responsible for developing action plans to improve best practices in academic support. At Penn State, Rourke earned a bachelor's degree in rehabilitation services education in 2003 and a master's degree in higher education services in 2006.